If you went to sleep before Ne-Yo's first musical performance during last night's SNL because all you had seen so far was a disappointing cold open, yet another musical monologue, a game show based around saying the word "bitch" as much as possible, and a recurring sketch about white people pretending to be Japanese, like I did before finishing the episode this morning, I urge you to go back and watch the rest of the episode. A weak beginning was completely wiped away by a strong finish. Except for that "bitch" thing. That was just terrible.

Django Unchained star/host Jamie Foxx was good. Very good, in fact. Remember how excited Jeremy Renner looked two weeks ago before his piano stopped working during the monologue, at which he began to resemble a stock photo model for "end of the world terror"? Foxx had that pre-malfunction look in his eyes the entire episode; he danced, he jumped, he insulted the audience (more on that later), he seemed excited to be there, and although he tripped over his lines a few times, it was never distracting. If anything, like Stefon's chuckles, it only helped the sketch. To paraphrase (and mutilate) Foxx's monologue, how good was that? Very.

One of the best things about this episode: after the tame cold open, about Republicans bullying John Boehner, there wasn't a single other political sketch. Considering the show's success this season with doing anything even remotely topical (which is to say: *fart noise*), you'll hear no complaints here.

The monologue was frantic and all over the place and slave jokes, but things were fine...until Foxx wandered over to the piano. SNL writers have to know that everyone criticizes their desire to put a musical number into every monologue, right? That being said, “Birthday Song” is pretty great.

Still a premise with one joke, but "J Pop" hasn't entered "The Californians" territory yet because Taran Killam and Vanessa Bayer, and special guest FJBJ designer Dante, kept things so energized...duh duh. Even if you wanted to take your (squinty? Now they've got me doing it) eyes off Bayer's adorable look or the bunny set design, you couldn't, especially when they break into song or start dancing again...duh duh.

Plus, it was a helluva lot better than...

...because goddamn, was this awful. "Bitch" is a perfectly funny word, but when it's screamed approximately 863 times in a five-minute sketch? Not so much. I do want to name my first child Mookie Meeks, though.

I'm torn, like Alex Cross/Madea deciding which bathroom to use. On one half of the face, the premise behind Tyler Perry Presents Alex Cross 2: Medea Special Ops is brilliant (and slightly different than Buddy System's parody), even if Alex Cross did come out two months ago. On the other, the execution wasn't as solid as it could have been. It felt like the writers stopped trying once they came up with the basic plot of the lowercase-digital short, with the same jokes happening multiple times. But I'll give it a pass because Madea spoofs are comedy gold.

Another reason why Hanukkah > Christmas: the Jews don't have to rely on a fat man with a cholesterol of "a million." We await the nice gold man with the endlessly curly beard filled with matzah crumbs, instead.

I laughed out loud at 8:15 a.m. at "Sug...ar Knight." Didn't think that was even possible.

For a bit about a pimp who sells trees to freaks like Fred Armisen, who receives a nice sappy beej from a shorty pine, there's very little to say about "Marcus Banks: Tree Pimp." It was good?

A+ It ran for just the right amount of time, everyone hit their beats perfectly, and it played off one of the host's most prominent attributes. Namely, that Jamie Foxx is — SPOILER ALERT — black. If the contestants had been Jay, Kenan, and, say, Tim Robinson, "Dylan McDermott or Dermot Mulroney" wouldn't have been nearly as funny or even possible, especially with the "Djimon Hounsou or Chiwetel Ejiofor" capper.

CHARLIE DAY ALERT. "Maine Justice" was weird, had no point, and you sound like a jerk if you try to explain the premise ("So, it's Maine, but everyone speaks like they're from Louisiana because..."). In other words, it was great, like a nice cold glass of molasses on a sticky summer night.

I thought the specifics of the bit were solid enough that I didn’t mind it having been done in other places (Foxx did a great joke switching between the personalities); it’s just that once you got beyond the premise, there wasn’t much there.

Jesus H., that J-Pop America show is the absolute worst. Can we just…I mean, it was funny the first time, but I think at this point everyone in the viewing audience is watching the skit with the same mixture of revulsion and shame as poor Jason Sudeikis.

I don’t know maybe I’m childish or just love Jamie Foxx, but I actually had to go back and re-watch “Bitch: The Game Show” because I laughed too hard during it the first time. That sketch and “Swarvoski Crystals” were easily the hardest I laughed at SNL this year.

I thought “What the answer, bitch?” sketch was funny too. I’m not sure if it would’ve worked without Jamie Foxx going all-in and it certainly started to drag, but for someone to call it terrible? That’s questionable

The Dermot Mulroney / Dylan McDermott sketch might’ve been funny in 1998, but the difficulty of keeping them apart has been discussed way too often for that to be a relevant idea for an entire sketch in 2012. The only thing that saved it for me was brining up Rupert Everett at the end.

The DM / DM confusion was used better as a small part of the ‘Philly Justice’ inside joke among the Parks and Rec cast, in which Paul Rudd was supposedly replaced by Dylan McDermott, who was then replaced by Dermot Mulroney.

I hate myself sometimes for liking Bobby Boynihan so much as of late. Did he stop (or start) taking drugs recently? I think he’s found his spot as the go-to straight man or Guy Fieri impersonator. Solid work by Bobby this season.

I liked the episode for the most part other than the monologue, which was in very bad taste or Foxx didn’t know how to make it sound more tongue-in-cheek. Now onto Martin Short, either a disaster or a Meh episode (see Dana Carvey)

“How’s it poppin’ y’all! I’m Jamie Fizzoxuhh”
2 Chainz inexplicably showing up for some TERRIBLE rap between the two, followed by “Stick around! We got Neyo! How black is that?!”

Seemed a little over the top. Overcompensating, even. I get the sense from Foxx that everything that he does is solely done in order to make himself look or seem cool, the cartoonish posturing from the monologue only confirmed that for me.

I agree that the energy is always good in J-Pop, like when Jonah Hill started losing it mid-section. Very similar to Maine Justice where Jamie loses it. Surprised at lack of Kate McKinnon as she can carry her own when needed.

Ha, I had exactly the same feelings about Foxx’s monologue last night. I was dreading what was coming when he went over to the piano, but it actually turned out to be really funny. I think that he did a great job hosting, and I would love to see him back next season. I thought it was a pretty good show and it had some great bits with Jay Pharoah. I am really surprised at how good this season is with so many new cast members, and I have even saved every episode on my DISH Hopper’s 2 TB hard drive. I am constantly showing people sketches, like the other day me and a coworker from DISH watched the Joseph Gordon Levitt monologue. Maybe the writers don’t care about what people say because they know that we actually end up loving 80% of those musical monologues.

Lately the funniest part of this show has been the very last sketch. It seems to be the sketch where they figure they can do anything with and many many times it works. Also, I loved Mrs. Claus. She was a sassy bitch.

Tree Pimp was funny the way Portlandia is funny. I didn’t laugh a lot but I won’t be able to drive by one of those tree shops without thinking about the worker pimping trees ever again. Maine Justice and Charlie Day deserve an Emmy. And a Nobel peace prize.

Maybe it was because I polished off a bottle of really good Italian Wine, but, with the exception of that really stupid cold open, I thought SNL was hilarious.

“Bitch” reminded me of an In Living Color skit, “Tree Pimp” was great (and it’s nice to see they’re starting to use New York in their skits) and J Pop surprisingly remains fresh due to the creative genius of Bayer and Killam. I think J Pop can and will stay fresher longer than a character like Stefon because they incorporate guests into their show and can go along many different cultural paths of Asia. Whereas Stefon will just laugh for 4.5 out of 5 minutes and when he’s not laughing, he’s making a weird sound, followed by saying “midgets” which will lead to him hitting on Seth. I think if Stefon brought in more characters in his world, or they did Stefon skits outside of Update, he could have stayed Fresher for a longer period of time.

Also, HOLY SHIT! I want more Swarvoski Crystals ads on SNL. There were so many great one liners in there. Bayer and Strong are attractive women, but, I never thought they’d be able to pull off “washed up porn star actress” and look good doing it. I was very, very wrong.

Did I miss something or did the show get edited from “killing all the white people in the movie!” to “killing all the bad people!” Am I allowed to point things like this out? I’m not sure what everyone else was watching but it’s the last time I watch SNL!